WorldWar: Supreme Balance
by Guardian54
Summary: The Race took their sweet time preparing for the invasion of Tosev 3. Now, they'll meet the Coalition of Species... also set in my lol!OP!Humanity verse.
1. 2800 Local Years…

A/N: This is partly contiguous with Supreme Commander: The Thirteenth, so please read the first five chapters of that first before you start this. Also, if you did not read Supreme Commander: Mass Effect, SupCom: ME and KS Prequel, and maybe some of the other pieces (i.e. SupCom: Koprulu Sector) this may not make very much sense at times.

I feel sorry for the Race.

* * *

Chapter 1: 2800 Local Years…

_Earth, July 16, 1068 AD_

_2800 Earth/Galactic Standard Years before Present_

The probe assembly the Race had sent had, after thirty local years of flight through empty, interstellar space, finally arrived. The assembly separated into its modules, and each module sent down a Lander to the relatively puny continental masses of the planet. Probes sent 300 of the Race's years earlier had revealed the planet to be hospitable to life, now it was just a matter of determining how hospitable it was.

The images the automated probes sent back would spark much debate among the Race's politicians and scientists as to whether such a cool world was worth considering as the next colonization location. The final verdict would take hundreds of their years to reach, and several generations of analysts, but in the end, they decided to go ahead with the planning of incorporating another world into the Empire at the same sedate pace they had used for the conquest of Rabotev 2 and Halless 1, tens of thousands of years ago.

* * *

_Tau Ceti System, October 31, 2108_

_1840 Years before Present_

The Probe dispatched by the united nations of Earth had charted the planet over the past few minutes and transmitted its data back toward Earth. The planet was declared a "Pre-FTL civilization". In other words, contact would not be attempted until they attained FTL technology. Little did the scientists know that due to this designation, the planet and its native species would be respected and left alone, along with the species' two colonies, for over 1800 years. The Aeon Illuminate, Cybran Nation and United Earth Federation would eventually all respect the designation, and because no humans lived there according to records captured on Earth, the Seraphim Imperium would also overlook the three systems in their quest to eliminate humanity. The species would remain ignored, left in the dark vastness of space, for nearly two millennia.

* * *

_Tau Ceti System, October 11, 3838_

The probe monitoring the system, upgraded several times over the 1800-some years of silent vigil it had stood, detected a fleet of starships departing the system, headed in the general direction of Earth. It sent back the report via Quantum Communications, the answer was to continue observing the system, the UEF would deal with the threat, if it was a threat, when it got there, which was not for another thirty years. The war with the Aeon and Cybrans was quickly intensifying, and analysts predicted a final showdown within a decade, so thirty years was too far to be worrying for the UEF.

* * *

_Tau Ceti System, December 12, 3858_

The probe monitoring the system for 1850 years now detected another fleet departing, this one carrying no weaponry onboard other than early 21st century standard anti-missile defences. The Coalition was leisurely awaiting the arrival of the first fleet, shadowed by two corvettes for the past several years at the impossibly slow sub-light speed they were moving at. The leaders had a good laugh over the chances of this Race, as they called themselves, even coming near Earth's inner system.

* * *

_Near Sol System, December 31, 3868_

The "Race" fleet, the first one, the one with actual weapons, had just arrived on the outer fringes of the Oort Cloud of Earth's system. They had been watched by the hundreds of listening posts and telescope arrays for a long time, and they would receive a welcome none of them could ever have expected. They were decelerating at full burn already, sliding into Earth's system butt-first, which was the first problem for their heavy, lumbering, unwieldy ships.

* * *

_Bannership 127__th__ Emperor Hetto, January 12, 3869_

Fleetlord Atvar made his way into the command station of the conquest fleet Bannership 127th Emperor Hetto regally as befitting his station as Fleetlord. Officers straightened their posture as he entered, and his eye turrets swivelled about, taking them in and observing their reactions to his entry. He said nothing but mentally nodded, they had all paid the proper respect.

Shiplord Kirel joined his immediate superior at the projector with a bow of respect, and as their usual morning routine, the Fleetlord drew up the footage taken by the drone in the holo-tank with some taps of his finger claws. As usual, they walked around the blue, grey, white and green sphere hanging in the holo-tank in silence for a moment "It is truly a pity." Atvar spoke first, his language, to the average human, would have sounded like clicks, whistles and hisses. "Too much blue and green…" there was gold too, but far too little of it compared to the other three worlds controlled by the Empire and the Race. "Looks like a cold place, cold and wet."

"Indeed, Fleetlord, pity such a hot white star such as Tosev has hatched so chilly an egg."

The star they were talking about was almost twice as luminous as the star under which the Race conquest fleet's members had been raised, sadly, Tosev 3, the only habitable planet in-system, orbited toward the outer edge of the habitable zone. "Not only is there too much water on the rock, there's even frozen water, what a joke." He gestured toward the ice caps at the poles, not exactly large compared to the continents, but as far as the Race was concerned, frozen water was a rarity outside laboratories on their three current worlds.

Kirel spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness "Even if Tosev 3 is colder on average than what we're used to, we won't have any real trouble living there, and parts will be pleasantly warm enough for us… and of course the natives should be pushovers."

Atvar and Kirel shared an open-mouthed laugh, for that is how the Race laughs, by what humans would call gaping. "By the Emperor, can you state anything more obvious?" Atvar said jokingly, if it had been Straha, third-in-command of the fleet and Shiplord of the 206th Emperor Yower, his comment would have been delivered in biting tone, but since Kirel was more of a friend than someone aspiring to climb the ranks, this statement was more of a friendly teasing than vicious irritation. "Bring up the footage of the natives again, Kirel, it's been a few days since we've had a few good laughs around the ship."

"It shall be done." Kirel tapped at the projector controls and the hologram of Tosev 3 vanished, replaced with a series of images of typical inhabitants, all taller than a typical male of the race. Some carried wooden bows and stone-tipped arrows while others rode on furry beasts and had rusty mail, shields, and iron swords

"How well do you think weapons of this kind are likely to stand up to bullets, armoured fighting vehicles, aircraft?" Atvar asked rhetorically. The officers all laughed, looking forward to an easy conquest, to adding a fourth planet and solar system to the dominions of the Emperor.

Not to be outdone in enthusiasm by his commander, Kirel added, "These aren't old images, either, they date back only about fifty-six hundred years." He paused "That would be about twenty-eight hundred of Tosev 3's revolutions. And how much, my fellow warriors, how much could a world change in a mere twenty-eight hundred revolutions?"

The officers laughed again, more widely this time. Atvar laughed with them. The history of the Race was more than a hundred thousand years deep; the Ssumaz dynasty had held the throne for almost half that time, ever since techniques for ensuring male heirs were worked out. Under the Ssumaz Emperors, the Race took Rabotev 2 twenty-eight thousand years ago, and seized Halless I eighteen thousand years after that. Now it was Tosev 3's turn. The pace of conquest was quickening, Atvar thought.

He was busy going over the infinite minutiae that accompanied command with Kirel when a junior officer skittered into their office, off to one side of the command station (bridge) unexpectedly. Atvar and Kirel looked up from the computer screen with a start. No one was scheduled to interrupt them at this time, and the Race did not lightly break routine. Emergency in space was improbable in the extreme. _And if there was a major emergency on the ship we'll all be atoms, probably_. A snide part of his brain remarked. But who would dare disturb him for anything less?

"Speak." he growled.

The junior officer who came into the suite looked nervous; his tail stump twitched and his eyes swivelled quickly, now this way, now that, as if he were scanning the room for danger. "Exalted Fleetlord, kinsmale of the Emperor, as you know, we draw very near the Tosev system." he said, his voice hardly louder than a whisper.

"I had better know that," Atvar said with heavy sarcasm, rolling his eye-turrets in irritation, Kirel chuckled with him for a brief moment.

"Y-yes, Exalted Fleetlord." The junior officer, almost on the point of bolting, visibly gathered himself before continuing: "Exalted Fleetlord, I am Subleader Erewlo, in the communications section. For the past few ship's days, I have detected minute and unusual radio transmissions coming from the inner system. These appear to be artificial in nature, and, and" now he had to force himself to go on and face Atvar's certain wrath "from tiny Doppler shifts in the signal frequency, appear to be emanating from Tosev 3."

In reality, the only things still using primitive radio waves in the entire Sol system were remote controls, since they were still more economical than quantum communications, though they were bulkier, remote controls needed to be easily locatable, so that balanced things out. Of course, there was also minor energy leaks from the orbital facilities that were not equipped with stealth, and emissions from the anti-collision systems of air-buses, but that was another story altogether.

The Fleetlord nearly twitched in shock, as opposed to being angry. "That is ridiculous,'' he said "How dare you presume to tell me that the animal-riding savages our probes photographed have moved in the historic swivel of an eye turret up to electronics when we required tens of millennia for the same advance?"

Kirel was standing by, mute with shock until he shook his head to clear it "Are you certain? OR have you tripped and fallen on your head?" Sure, Race skulls were tough, but it wasn't unheard of for someone to trip and fall hard enough to be slightly delusional as to their memories of a particular period of time.

"Exalted Fleetlord, Splendid Shiplord, I presume nothing," Erewlo quavered. "I merely report to you anomalous data which may be of import to our mission and therefore to the Race."

"Get out," Atvar said, his voice flat and deadly dangerous. Erewlo fled. The Fleetlord and Shiplord glared after him. The report was ridiculous, on the face of it. The Race changed but slowly, in tiny, sensible increments. Though both the Rabotevs and the Hallessi were conquered before they developed radio, they had had comparably long, comparably leisurely developments. Surely that was the norm among intelligent races.

Atvar spoke to his computer. The data the subleader had mentioned came up on his screen. He studied them, asked the machine for their implications. The implications were as Erewlo had said: with a probability that approached one, those were artificial radio signals coming from Tosev 3. The Fleetlord snarled a command the computer was not anatomically equipped to obey, while Kirel let out a whistle of alarm instead. If the natives of Tosev 3 had somehow stumbled across radio, what else did they know?

* * *

_Outer Sol System, January 13, 3869_

"This 'Race' hasn't even developed Quantum Communications in the 1800 years we've been monitoring them for?" Hannah Shepard asked incredulously. That meant the idiots moved so glacially slowly they probably couldn't wrap their head around the fact that humanity was going to confront them. Well, if it came down to it, she'd just have to intimidate them, wouldn't she? Their ships were basically two-kilometre freighters that looked like a Loa Tactical Missile could crack one right open, and the aircraft, tanks and other weapons they carried were maybe late twentieth century to early twenty-first century standards. The only plus compared to equipment Earth had then was the fact that their "killercraft" were capable of sub-orbital flight and all their engines burned hydrogen. Of course, hydrogen's properties made it rather dangerous, but for a petrol-poor, dry planet like Tau Ceti 2, there wasn't much else to choose, they just had to adapt.

If this "conquest fleet" intended to head to Earth and conquer it, and assuming the orbital defences let them through to land on Earth just for laughs, one Coalition Marine could stand out in an open field and utterly dominate as far as his or her weapons could reach. If he or she had an Infantry Nanodart Launcher, that would be pretty damned far, as in over-the-horizon far. She thought of something "You know, Princess, Presidents, Doctor, it's about time our boys down on the ground got some live-fire target practice… how about it?"

"I'm not entirely sure about that, Hannah. We don't need these primitives to see any of our tech at work…" Rhianne trailed off with a frown.

Brackman rebutted "We could hack into their ships' computers and direct them to land where we want them."

"Doctor, with all due respect, I would not want to be your pet." Hall said loudly.

Ratheen leaned toward the virtual conference table with interest "Why would that be?"

Hall's holographic form leaned away from Brackman's in the virtual conference room "the good Doctor seems to have a fetish for cruelty to animals, or in this case cruelty to sentients."

Brackman rolled his eyes "I am merely suggesting a plausible way of dealing with this matter at hand, after all, it was Hannah who suggested we give our Marines some live targets to practice on."

"Trying to redirect President Hall's irritation won't work as well as you'd think, Doctor, he is no longer five years old." That statement earned Hackett the Evil Eye from Brackman.

Rhiza and Rhianne glanced pointedly at Ariel and motioned with their heads while the men talked "Now that you boys have finished your little pissing contest, can we get to the point?" Williams interjected, saving the Avatar of War and Princess of the Illuminate from using uncouth language with an accompanying eye-roll and grins from both of the aforementioned Aeon women. "Alright, what exactly are we going to do? Enable the active camouflage on the orbital defences" That was a stopgap measure, since full cloaking had yet to be developed for the stations "and let them get themselves into a trap, and beat them to bits before demanding surrender and heading to their homeworld to extract it, or send them to one of the uninhabited systems we consider too arid for colonization these days?"

"I'm thinking sending them to colonize elsewhere by intercepting them." Rhianne said, the other leaders shrugged, and then nodded agreement.

"Alright, Division Commander Hannah Shepard, you have your orders, carry them out."

* * *

A/N: From the votes in the poll (on my profile), I'm gathering that most people (12 of 18 as of Feb 2, 2011) are in favour of the Coalition sending the Race fleet somewhere else and going to Home to force negotiations (rather one-sided negotiations), hence this may seem a bit like AlbertG's fic WorldWar: Discovering the Balance.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Iwo Jima, Near Jupiter Orbit, January 13, 3869_

"Well alright then, switch on all the external lights we have, lathe more if we have to, and broadcast in radio, make it loud and clear, use their language" The translation algorithms switched on as indicated by the on-screen icon. "Hello, aliens, you are intruding on the sovereign space of the Coalition of Species. Please respond before we are forced to reduce you to scrap and vapour. You have until the countdown from two thousand finishes." The mechanical voice in the background of the broadcast began counting down in stereotypical overdramatic fashion that Hannah liked using only too much.

* * *

_Bannership 127__th__ Emperor Hetto, January 13, 3869_

Atvar was rooted to the spot, all comm. chatter silenced by the one transmission as well as the visible ship outside the armoured glass windows that had lit up in the darkness of space all of a sudden, announcing its presence among the three hundred ships of the conquest fleet. The male suddenly became acutely aware of one of the largest downsides to sole command. His the glory, his the honour, his the responsibility, and of course, his the blame, for anything that went wrong. And this, discovering another space faring species… or having such an elaborate hallucination, was definitely something going, horrifically wrong.

Feeling the eye-turrets of millions of males in the conquest fleet on him, Atvar picked up the transmitter, still idly wondering how in the names of emperors past this creature knew the language of the Race "This is Fleetlord Atvar of the Race Conquest Fleet, who is it that dares threaten the Race? How is it that you speak the language of the Race?"

"I am Division Commander Hannah Shepard of the Coalition of Species, we've got the necessary translation programs down already, my ship should be pulling alongside yours' right about… now." As with every other male on the bridge, Atvar's eye turrets swung about to the command center's reinforced view ports just in time to see a dark, predatory mass blot out the stars and stop abruptly from its quick movement into that position. "How about going home or something, lest this become unpleasant?" The voice had a steely edge to it, and the ships just appeared… menacing, somehow, with gaping maws of weapons oriented toward the ships of the race fleet.

"We have never heard of the Coalition of Species. We discovered this planet first; you will not upset the long-laid plans of the Race!"

The alien creature grunted "Uh, no, this system is ours and we're keeping it, stay out unless invited or we will scrap your oversized freighters."

Atvar realized something, the radio emissions from Tosev 3 must have come from this Coalition of Species. Undoubtedly, they had begun colonizing the planet without the Race becoming aware of it, stealing needed resources and space from under the Race's snouts. After all, Home was overcrowded, the main reasons behind the Empire expanding was to acquire needed land to live on and resources. "Where do you come from?" He ventured.

"We come from the Sol system, THIS system."

"I do not mean which system your small fleet is staged in or based in, I mean, where is your race's homeworld?"

"Three of the four major factions of the Coalition of Species are of the same species, humans, and originate from the planet you intend to conquer, Earth."

Atvar's tail stump twitched in agitation "Are you telling me you are native to this planet, Tosev Three?"

"It is called Earth or Sol Three, Fleetlord Atvar." The voice on the other side said primly.

"The Race named the star Tosev a hundred thousand years ago, fifty thousand local years ago, the planet we are headed for is Tosev Three."

"Well we're calling it Earth, and let me warn you that if you try to go there, there will be some very, VERY unpleasant consequences, and yes, this is my race's homeworld. We will not allow you to conquer Earth."

"You cannot stop us from arriving at Tosev Three. When we get there, I will have proved it to you. We are strong, and the Emperor has decreed that we bring Tosev Three into the Empire's rule."

"Alright, enough words, time for some action… that asteroid looks enticing." The ship swivelled one of its rather prominent chin guns toward an asteroid the Race fleet had been bypassing "Fire starboard Heavy Oblivion Cannon."

Atvar had no idea what "starboard" meant until he saw the right side chin gun, if the apparent chin really was the chin of the ship outside of the view port, swing about and unleash a glowing blue munition that streaked like a comet toward a nearby asteroid at high speed before smashing into and cracking apart said asteroid in a bright explosion. Comm. chatter increased considerably after that display of might, several Shiplords already frightened by the show. The Conquest Fleet ships were only armed with anti-missile defences, they had nothing to use against the direct-fire weapons this enemy wielded… _What is that big barrel on the dorsal side, over a seventh of the length of the Coalition ship, anyways?_ Atvar wondered as he realized the Race had never thought of space combat other than by missiles and anti-missile guns. The fleet wasn't outfitted to launch nearly enough of the former to make a difference against the sheer number of visible guns this enemy had for point defences and such, since only a few of the ships had missile launchers.

He came to the only possible conclusion, the Coalition of Species was too strong to take on right now, and the fleet was at their mercy, so, to save the lives of his subordinates… "Coalition… Division Commander, I believe? What is it that you want?"

* * *

_Asteroid Belt, Sol System, Bannership 127__th__ Emperor Hetto, January 15, 3869_

There wasn't just one Coalition ship… no, there were NINETY! Or so the "Division Commander" had claimed, considering most of the ships had a hard time being visible and detectable. "It is a pity that our standard hull materials seem to be too stealthy for your radar to detect…" the highly irritating individual had said with a barking laugh.

The conquest fleet simply wasn't prepared for space combat, no one of the Race had ever conceived it may be necessary on a mission to conquer primitives, hence, the fleet was helpless before the Coalition ships that kept winking onto and off of radar. The Division Commander had claimed that negotiations and talks would begin once they reached the asteroid belt and settled into orbit around Tosev in tandem with the Belt. They were slowly complying even now, and Atvar seethed at that. Tosev Three had been conquered by another space faring race, with superior firepower and weapons technologies; it had become a threat to the Empire, since the distance from Tosev to Home was not all that far… which brought up the next major issue. Thanks to the turning procedure the Fleet underwent mid-flight in the void of interstellar space Atvar was hoping that the aliens would not be able to find the location of Home, which would be a disaster…

He started talking as he propelled himself over to the podium that stood near the holo-tank that was at the front center of the conference room where all three hundred Shiplords awaited his words "The natives of Tosev Three have been conquered by another, more advanced group, a group that calls itself the 'Coalition of Species', we are gathered here to discuss what to do about this. I am open to suggestions, and yes, I have sent a message to Home."

"Great, let's wait, they should reply in… oh, about forty-four years, twenty-two local years, let's put the Fleet back in cryo-sleep and ask the Coalition to wait." Straha was once more annoying Atvar, since he unlike Kirel had higher aspirations and had a rather large clique of Shiplords who backed him. "Other than that, do you have anything else?"

Atvar wondered if Straha expected him to pull an idea from his cloaca and whether the Shiplord had anything useful to say "What part of 'I am open to suggestions' did you miss? Oh, right, I forgot to add, please consider your idea for a moment before presenting it. I have some ideas, but I would like to hear your ideas first, assembled Shiplords."

"The 56th Emperor Jossano holds most of our nukes, we should demonstrate to the Coalition that we too are capable of firing nuclear-level yield ship-to-ship weapons. We should be able to intimidate them into leaving the planet if we prove we are strong enough to fight them." The male said, his head feathers bobbing slightly as he gestured.

Atvar nodded to placate the Shiplord somewhat before swatting his idea "The problem is, we have effectively no intel on these aliens. We have no idea how many ships, how many fleets, they have, nor their true origins or power."

"We've only seen a few of the ships, the other radar signatures and such could be decoys, my guess would be that they don't have a large enough force on Tosev Three to contain the natives and fight a war against our millions of males at the same time."

"Your guess, since when has the Race operated on guess-work?" Kirel snapped at the other Shiplord who stood next to him.

"Since this whole mess started, our meticulous planning has failed us, what else can we do?" Straha shot back, his faction hissing in agreement.

"Enough, both of you, our problem is the utter lack of intel we have on the Coalition, in a few days, we will meet with some members of this Coalition and find out exactly what we need to know to conquer Tosev Three. That is my plan thus far; we need information if we are to make a decision that does not border on stupid, no?"

"Indeed, exalted Fleetlord." The two Shiplords said, bowing their heads slightly in respect and backing away from one another slightly, though each still kept an eye turret on the other.

* * *

A/N: Hot off the printing press (though I edit while writing), as usual for my pieces, feel free to point out any issues, thank you for reading.

The problem remains: should I give the Race a good ass-kicking or intimidating? Vote on profile poll (it's still somewhat undecided if Hannah Shepard is going to let them head on to Earth or not, though most likely not).


	2. Meetings

A/N: I have decided to let intimidation do the talking, and no, the Race will not get to and on Earth.

Neither this nor Thirteenth will be abandoned, it's just that I got a bit tired of writing curb-stomps with not-as-relevant-or-as-exciting characters, so I went back to SupCom ME 2 for a while. Besides, you **really** don't expect the Colonials to be able to launch another attack in the next two and bit years after their through ass-kicking over Earth. Do you?

I didn't notice until more than halfway through that I misspelled Ristin's name, so if you see Risten, know that it's the same guy unless it's blatantly otherwise. Also please remember that this is technically before SupCom ME 2.

* * *

Chapter 2: Meetings

_Asteroid Belt, Sol System, January 17, 3869_

"Coalition Division Commander, you will dock at the airlock indicated by our landing lights." The Race Traffic Control person's voice rang out over the PA inside the Whailer Heavy Gunship Hannah Shepard used for this sort of flight. These days, Whailers could either deploy Radar Jamming or Active Stealth, but the Race was having a hard enough time tracking them without even Passive Stealth or Active Camo (Passive Camo however couldn't be turned off). The way they were flying, any Coalition unit could pick them up from half a continent away (there are reasons Radar, Omni, and Vision range are so low…) but the Race still couldn't see nor detect them.

"Acknowledged, please do not make any sudden movements with your ship." Hannah answered as her pilot brought the Whailer closer, the Disintegrator Pulse Laser swivelling as much as it could to make sure it would immediately be available for cutting through the Race ship's hull if needed. She wasn't so much afraid of the Race ship hitting her T3 Heavy Gunship as she was of the Race ship impaling itself on her Gunship. In terms of material durability the Whailer, if pushed, could probably knife its way (though it might take multiple forward and back thrusts if no weapons fire was used) through the Race ship from side to side without being scraped clean of more than paint. She frowned "Damn, I don't think our airlocks will be compatible… alright, open the airlock and I'll go extravehicular."

"Are you certain that is wise?" The Race person sounded, even through the translation program, as if he thought she was absolutely insane.

"Yes, I can do it, now, open the damned Airlock door!"

* * *

"…Open the accursed airlock door!" The translator said rather calmly. Atvar chuckled, were these Coalition people really so stupid as to go EVA between two starships? Then again, there was no telling how far away the shuttlecraft was, or how big it was, since they couldn't detect it, only by a slight shimmering of the stars it blotted out could they tell anything was there at all.

"Instructions, Exalted Fleetlord?" Erewlo asked nervously at the Coalition being's demand.

Atvar didn't need to contemplate the issue long, the answer was obvious "Do as it says, open the airlock door, if they're stupid, let them be stupid, but if things work out for it, have the escort of infantry males bring it up to the bridge so we can interrogate it."

"Opening Airlock Door…" The entire bridge crew had one eye turret, well, one eye turret each, watching the display of the airlock's internal footage.

The were surprised when a being suited in matte black armour landed in the airlock and looked up at the camera before saying quite clearly through the translator "cycle the airlock, it's time for us to talk."

"Tell the infantry males to being it up here to the bridge after taking necessary precautions… stupid creature, so presumptuous as to come without even an escort…" Atvar's jaw dropped in a laugh.

* * *

"Please hand over your weapons, you may keep a sidearm if you so wish." The laughably unarmoured "Infantry Male" in front of her asked, his eyes roving about in noticeable fear of the nearly two meters of hulking armoured suit (the boots and the helmet "horns" added significantly to her height, though at 176 cm she wasn't exactly short, she was by no means tall either).

Hannah Shepard laughed, taking off her helmet causing the six infantry males to level their pathetically underpowered assault rifles at her. The underpowered guns probably wouldn't even punch completely through the skin of today's humans, considering back in the first great expansion, the Prime Worlds had all been established with gene-engineered human DNA patterns, complete with major modifications. "I have enough firepower on me to destroy your ship in short order, so either take me to your leader or step aside, I'll do it myself."

The first infantry male to make a move in her direction, his finger-claw twitching near his trigger while the gun was pointed at her head, was abruptly thrown backward with a kick to the chest of his "body armour". His gun was squashed to shattered parts in a single hand of the black-armoured figure, all before the bullet had finished ricocheting off her skin (in actual fact, it was her personal shield, but the Race didn't know that). The other five didn't dare make a move after that. "Let's go meet your Fleetlord, shall we?" She grinned ferally, baring her teeth, before walking past them and putting her helmet back on, following the nav-points she'd picked up and plotted according to deep scans of the Race ship.

* * *

"What are we going to do?" Ulhass squeaked in fear, though still attaching the interrogative cough, as he, Ristin, and the rest of his squad ran after the speedy creature that apparently had bullet-proof skin. They'd already called a medical team to help their knocked-out comrade before starting this trek after the creature.

His old friend hissed back "I don't know, I hope the Fleetlord does… and I hope he has more soldiers in the command center, or the fleet may well be screwed." He stopped talking because the exertion of keeping up with the creature's very fast walk was demanding faster breathing than normal. Ristin suddenly found that his physiology should have acquired longer legs… then again most things on Home were shorter, so they as apex predators could get away with it.

Another soldier spoke up "Yeah, did you…"

Ulhass glared with one eye turret "See how it deflected bullets? Yeah… it was damned scary."

"Well, let's hope it doesn't decide to take the Fleetlord and Shiplord Kirel as hostages…" Ristin grumbled as they rounded another corner, still following the tall, nightmarish creature.

"There's a saying among my people." The translated voice came from up ahead. "Don't go about giving people good ideas if you have no clue what they're about to pull." The pale face's ominous yellow and orange circuits pulsed before the Race soldiers could react. Ulhass actually squealed in fear when the huge, imposing figure came out from a curious shadow, it gave another barking laugh before it reached up and with a wave turned the light on again. "Let's get moving, you guys are embarrassing to have as a reception…" The creature shook its head as if disappointed and then walked off, putting the helmet on again.

"Do you think we're talking to an artificial construct?" One soldier asked in a hushed tone.

"No, the movements are too fluid to be an artificial construct, though with the facial circuits and possibly decorative black head fur, maybe it is one…" Ristin hissed back.

"You know I can hear you, right?" The creature ahead said over its shoulder, which shut the Race infantry males up.

* * *

Straha looked out from under his hand, which was splayed across his forehead, with one eye turret "Does anyone else think this sounds like a very lame Tele-visor show?" He added the interrogative cough as usual.

"For once, Straha, I agree with you." Atvar said dryly, watching the infantry males being played like fools. It was not due to their own incompetence, since Atvar had, unlike most males of his rank, associated with the ranks on a friendly basis, and knew Ulhass and Ristin's squad to be one of the most competent ones around (hence why they were stationed on the Bannership), but due to the Coalition Division Commander apparently simply being too good at making fools of others. He wasn't sure why, but the cameras seemed to simply refuse to show the individual's face, maybe electromagnetic interference? "They're about to reach the command center, be ready everyone." The Fleetlord hissed as he took up his position in the central part of the command center, on a higher level than the rest of the crew.

The door cycled open and the towering black armoured being walked into the command center, the floor vibrating slightly with every step it took. The bright, blood-red (for a human, it would be a deeper red, however, Tau Ceti was a dimmer, redder star) helmet optics seemed to scan the room, searching for prey "Hello, lizard people, I am Division Commander Hannah Shepard, I presume you are the leader?" It seemed to be looking at Atvar "Yes, you with the fanciest paintjob." It pointed at Atvar with a five-fingered hand, quite different from the four fingers members of the Race possessed.

"I am Fleetlord Atvar, yes. I wish to understand why you dispute our claim to Tosev Three, we were the first to survey it and we have legal documents proving it is property of the Empire." He was praying to the spirits of emperors past that the claims and such of this Coalition creature wouldn't hold up to a second inspection, that would be incredibly bad acting, but he was hoping it was so, since this Coalition could not possibly be from here, could they?

The optic lines above the eyes came closer together before the mouth optic pulsed with the voice pattern "When did you survey it?"

Kirel supplied an answer after Atvar glanced at him, indicating the Shiplord should go ahead "Roughly fifty-six hundred of our years, or twenty-eight hundred local years ago."

The loud, barking noise that filled the command center brought one eye turret from every male present, even those who hadn't been looking before, and it brought both eye turrets of all those concerned with the proceedings. It appeared to be this species' equivalent of laughter. "If you had come two thousand Galactic Standard Years ago, you would have stood a chance, maybe." The armoured being laughed some more "You're about two thousand years late to have a chance. We own Earth, and we have no intention of giving it up."

Atvar's tail stump twitched in annoyance "Where is Earth relative to Tosev Three?"

The being grew more serious "If you meant Tosev as in this system's star, then the third planet is Earth."

Atvar bared his teeth slightly "It is called Tosev Three, and we are going to bring it into the Empire."

Hannah Shepard was wondering if they should just let them go ahead. Then she had a mental image of what was effectively a late twentieth century tank, okay, with hydrogen-burning engines, but still, going up against a Coalition Marine with an LBR and internally shivered. The Marine could probably cut through the armour in under a second in Assault Mode or one shot, maybe two, in Sniper Mode. After that, an image of such tanks stopping after realizing the Megalith that was at rest (body mostly sitting on the ground) in front of them was not a hill popped into her head and she decided against unnecessary cruelty. "Sorry, Atvar, but we own the world, and we will not allow you to take it from us."

"You will not be able to stop us." Atvar said plainly with absolute confidence in his voice, audible even through Hannah's translator.

"If you want to sacrifice your entire fleet going up against Earth's defences, feel free, my ships will leave you to go ahead, but we will destroy the colonization fleet that just left your home system, then we will go to the three planets in your puny Empire and conquer them. After we have reduced the surfaces to ash, we will terraform them and settle them, is that what you wish?" She stated, similarly plainly.

"Home will be ready to meet you if it comes to that, they have been alerted to your existence."

Hannah Shepard blew a raspberry and rolled her eyes "Your radio signals will arrive to find a world long since wiped clean and terraformed, settled by the first colonists. It will take them ten Galactic Standard Years to get to your homeworld, we could be there in minutes, that's if we took it cautiously and jumped to your Oort Cloud first for long-distance scans."

Atvar was first to recover from the threat "Impossible, we have proven it is impossible to move faster than the speed of light. We will prove to you how foolish it is to threaten the Empire."

Hannah Shepard was getting impatient about this whole mess, if they insisted on being so obstinate, maybe she would toy with them, it was a good way to distract herself from the fact that only James called her every half a month or so these days… That still hurt to think about, though being Cybran she could put it on the back burner for now. "I will consult with my superiors before we speak any more." She stated with an air of finality before shutting off her external speakers and opening a channel back to the Iwo Jima and from there to Coalition High Command. "Doctor, Presidents, Princess, Prime Minister, with their obstinate behaviour, do you believe a show of force is in order?"

"I'm thinking this 'Race' needs to be taught its place in the galaxy, with Vigil's help, we've managed to decipher some of our oldest annals, ones believed to be legends of a time when we lived in a different world. While that was true, since we did escape to the parallel reality, or as you'd call it dimension, to escape what Vigil calls the Reapers, I do believe we've found a match for the Race in our records, a bipedal lizard-like race, some with head feathers, have nictitating membranes on their eyes just as the Drell do, but not polarized unlike the Drell inner eyelids." Ratheen nodded to the UND (United Nations of Drell) Prime Minister, who nodded back on the video feed of the five leaders' holo-conference. "They first became unified under a single dynasty, the Ssumaz dynasty, shortly before our escape through the Quantum Rift we opened then."

"I do believe we should put off the show of definite force until we are on their homeworld, so that it can serve as a rather heavy-handed stick in any negotiations we do." President William Hall stated rather plainly.

"Division Commander, I believe we should proceed by taking these aliens on… a short tour, show them that we can travel faster than light and that we have immense fortifications around Earth, then tell them to back off." Rhianne smiled "If need be, take them to their homeworld, Home, how unimaginative, and negotiate with their Emperor. There are plenty of planets we've considered too arid to be truly worth settling, in fact, this one right here will do it." Rhianne settled her pointer, after zooming in, on a planet near the current "Empire" and was incidentally famous for its history. "Yes, you probably didn't expect this, but Syrtis would be just perfect for this 'Race'."

Brackman frowned "Isn't Syrtis Major a major gate hub?"

Rhianne shook her head "In the days of the Infinite War it was a gate hub, however, it is no longer, we've decentralized the Quantum Gate Network, if you've forgotten."

Brackman rubbed his forehead "I must be getting old…" There was an echoing silence in the conference at the comment of the 1200-some year old Doctor, who glared in irritation at the other leaders for not saying something along the lines of "You're not old, not really".

"When will it be finished talking to its superiors?" Someone in the Command Center of the ship, the "127th Emperor Hetto", whispered to another, but it was enough for Hannah's armour to pick up and put into the conference, though the outside couldn't listen in.

"Alright, so we'll proceed as Rhianne said, agreed?" Hannah Shepard looked around in the virtual conference and everyone's holograms nodded "Okay then, let's get this show on the road…" She left the conference and re-engaged her external speakers all with a mere thought, ah, the wonders of being Cybran… "If you refuse to back off immediately, I am authorized to allow some of you the opportunity to witness some proof as to our ownership of this planet and the extent of our power. Consider my offer well, most would not give you such an offer, I will await your response, decide quickly, time is running out." A countdown meter that she projected from her chest began ticking back from three thousand in big orange numbers, both Coalition numbers and Race ones, that were accompanied by read-outs in the language this "Race" used every one hundred numbers.

* * *

"We cannot send the Fleetlord, Straha, it is simply too risky." Kirel coughed emphatically.

Straha hissed indignantly "Which is why you want to send me? Why not go yourself for this honourable, prestigious mission, O Shiplord Kirel?" The interrogative cough sounded, at best, annoyed.

Atvar finished scratching his forehead in annoyance and fixed both eye turrets on the third highest ranking male in the fleet "Because it is better to have the deputy of the fleet around in case something actually happens to me, Straha. Now, if you want to ask why we should not send a junior Shiplord, I will tell you, the bait that we need to put out for the information we want needs to be good enough for the prey to take it, no? And, you, Shiplord, are high enough in rank that they will actually tell you things about themselves in the hopes of intimidating us, no?" The assembled Shiplords were gesturing in the affirmative almost as a collective, and Straha's eye turrets darted about as Atvar continued "I formally ask you, do you accept this position to serve the Emperor?" They all looked down for a moment in respect.

Straha knew he was cornered, if he didn't accept, he'd lose all credibility whatsoever among his supporters. "Yes, yes I do."

"Do not fret, Straha, I'm also sending Pshing with you, along with some of our soldiers so they can get first-hand accounts, as well as Drefsab and Ttomalss for the researchers' aspect of things…" Atvar paused and established a comm.-link with the bridge "Erewlo!"

"What is your wish, Exalted Fleetlord?" The communications officer asked.

"You are hereby appointed communication officer of Straha's party, I trust you will be able to handle this duty?" Atvar added an interrogative cough.

"Yes, Exalted Fleetlord!" The young male sounded as he should.

* * *

Ussmak had been one of the highest-scoring Landcruiser drivers, hence the reason he was on the Bannership in the unlikely event the Race had to commit its best troops to battle. He had expected to either go to the surface at once or hang around the Bannership until the natives were pacified.

He did NOT expect to be summoned to be part of a party to head to an alien ship to see "evidence" of their power. He did NOT expect to be stuck along with his old friends Ulhass and Ristin on this expedition, and he most certainly did NOT expect the towering, ominous, frightening armoured being standing in the middle of the bridge as if unperturbed by the infantry males surrounding it, their rifles pointed at the being as the countdown next to it kept ticking down toward zero.

He was very much disturbed by the way the Fleetlord seemed to fear this being, and the confident way in which it led the Race party to the airlock it had boarded through, through a hallway Ussmak could have sworn was not meant to be outside the airlock, and onto its shuttlecraft. "Alright, guys, here's your room, stay here. We will be docking with the Iwo Jima shortly." The being said through its translator before the ship vibrated slightly and the window showed they were pulling away from the Bannership. Ussmak tapped it with a finger claw and was surprised to find it was apparently the same material as the rest of the wall.

* * *

Hannah Shepard chuckled as she watched the inquisitive male tap at the window "That's a holographic window; sit down, to those unused to it, Faster-Than-Light travel is sometimes unsettling." It was true no matter the means that some people would feel uncomfortable with it. Several of the lizard-like beings snorted before she continued "So, I'm Hannah Shepard, a Division Commander, what are your names and ranks?"

"Ussmak, Landcruiser pilot." The one who'd been tapping the window answered, the others stated theirs in turn after him.

"Thank you, knowing each other's names is, after all, the first step to understanding." She took off her helmet and ran her hand through her hair.

"And to assimilation into the Empire." Pshing added helpfully, she narrowed her optics at him "What? Tosev Three and by association you Tosevites will be assimilated…"

Hannah Shepard was laughing again "Listen mister, the number of ships and Commanders under my jurisdiction is enough to wipe every one of your Empire's planets clean of sentient life within a single day with little difficulty… pilot, are we docked to the Iwo Jima yet?"

"One moment, ma'am… we are now, boarding umbilical has been prepped, please proceed." The voice came over the PA.

Hannah nodded before putting her helmet back on and sealing it, though the Race members didn't notice the latter part "Thank you, dismissed."

"Acknowledged." The pilot called as Hannah and the race party stepped into the boarding passage which had been nanolathed but seconds ago to bridge the gap between the T3 Heavy Gunship and the Coalition Battle Cruiser.

"Your eyes will soon be opened." Hannah said casually as they walked into the hanger bay and among the few auxiliary craft the BC carried within its hull, all of which seemed massive to anyone not used to the grand scale of Coalition tech aka the Race party, who were almost cricking their necks with how far back they leaned to look at the massive war machines hanging on their racks attached to the ceiling.

* * *

Ulhass and Ristin were treading carefully, exclaiming to each other and the rest of the group about the gravity inside the ship, which didn't seem to be spinning, whereas the Bannership had spun to achieve even the small amount of gravity that had allowed the crew to even walk on the deck. Pshing was surprised by the fact that the massive machines were hung from the ceiling instead of resting on the deck, while Straha remained silent.

Drefsab's liver was far past his toe claws if it had sunk in the same epic proportions it had sunk by upon the revelation that the Tosevites had radio were anything to go by. It wasn't even the immense scale of the machines that frightened him like they did everyone else, and reasonably so since after all the huge missile-launching ports on the attack craft seemed at least large enough to fit a male, standing up, into one, and the large, intimidating chin guns on some of them were tracking the Race party silently as they walked by. Not even that, but the very fact that the craft were space-capable was making his liver do flip-flops in abject horror. Also, there were the little things, such as the solid-contact holographic consoles he'd seen the "Division Commander" use, and the almost vibrant feel of power about the ship, as if it radiated an immense amount of energy with absurd efficiency (which it did, but Drefsab didn't know that).

Ttomalss was similarly alarmed by the huge, menacing attack craft in neat hanger rows on either side of them. He had a feeling that this path was meant to intimidate them, but it was still a showcase of what the Coalition had at its command, including artificial gravity, since the ship didn't seem to be spinning and it felt just like normal gravity for Home. He was also intrigued by how there were so few crew members but large numbers of armed Marines watching them move silently. "I would like to ask, superior sir, where are the crew involved in the maintenance of a spacecraft of this size?"

Hannah Shepard smiled "It's superior female to you lot, and we don't have much in the way of crew on our starships, automation, you understand. As for the Marines, which you are no doubt going to ask about next, they are present for your own safety, a lot of us are just itching to put you back in your place in the galaxy at large."

"How would one identify a male of your species from a female?" Ttomalss asked, scribbling notes down on his pad with his pencil (even the Race concluded that carbon-core writing implement was simply too bulky to use in normal conversation)

"Like just about every other species in the galaxy" other than Hanar "our females have wider hips for childbearing" Okay, for some species i.e. Drell it was egg-laying, but still. "We also tend to have these" Hannah pointed at her chest "and in general we are slightly shorter but somewhat stronger and tougher than males."

"What are these?" One of the Race members asked curiously, it was Ristin, who poked Hannah's chest-plate with a finger claw, which was gently removed. If she'd swatted it aside, they would get a good study on Race bone structure on their hands, because she'd have broken his arm.

"I strongly recommend not touching any human female there, or they will most likely lash out and break your arm in the process." She said menacingly, drawing herself to her full height above the alien. "They are called by a variety of names" Hannah mentally shivered at the number of awkward moments that would occur if she actually told them any of the terms "but their purpose is mainly to nourish young, and in courtship."

Ttomalss looked up from his note pad and stared at said objects intently "How would something like that be used to nourish young?"

"You're the scientist on this crew, aren't you?"

Ttomalss made the affirmative gesture, then, because Hannah didn't seem to get it, stated his meaning "Affirmative, so how would those be used in courtship or even to nourish young?"

"So, you guys use sign language in addition to speaking, huh?" Hannah nodded. "That's interesting. Anyway, these secrete milk" At the blank looks the lizards she added "It's the term for nutrient fluid, secreted by all mammals, which are the predominant types of sentient species in the galaxy.

Drefsab, who she'd tentatively identified as a spook, spoke up "Sounds disgusting."

She shrugged "To each his own, I guess, here's the nearest elevator." They stepped in and the door closed, moments later, the door opened to a different floor.

"We moved?" the Landcruiser driver, Ussmak, questioned.

Hannah shrugged "We have the technology to compensate for inertia." She stated almost casually, causing Drefsab and Pshing to shiver in fear of the implications and Ttomalss to stop his furious scribbling… momentarily. Ulhass, Ristin, and Ussmak were too busy looking around at the rather tall hallway they'd entered and were now walking along, it was impeccably clean, with many, many doors along each side that they passed before walking through another door. "Welcome to the Bridge, the command center of the ship."

Pshing was next to comment "It sure doesn't look like a command center." His eye turrets looked about, independent of one another. There were only four other people in the bridge, typical of non-combat situations since the Iwo Jima had a twenty-person crew as a BC. The CO and XO had twelve-hour shifts (though they could and were encouraged to wander around to talk) while everyone else had eight-hour shifts. The most popular hang-outs were the mess hall and occasionally the bridge, typical of larger Coalition warships, the smaller ones tended to concentrate in the mess hall.

"Yeah, well, we're a lot more advanced than some." Hannah shrugged at the glares from Drefsab, Straha and Pshing. "So, are you all ready to see the evidence that we can in fact travel faster than light?" She directed the question at the so far quiet Shiplord, highest-ranking of the party of males.

"Yes, let's get on with it." Straha said in a subdued tone after a while. What he'd seen on his way here had cemented in his mind that the Coalition was too much to handle, at least for now.

Hannah nodded "Alright, Joker, plot jump to lunar orbit." Space in the coalition was mostly clear, with only warships and some stations, since interstellar shipping wasn't required thanks to the Quantum Gate Network, though all planets held small fleets of FTL-capable freighters, enough for an evacuation, in reserve.

This shift's helmsman, Jeff "Joker" Moreau, who'd been moved to her ship at her request after the Normandy had been destroyed over Alchera, nodded and began the announcement "FTL Jump in thirty seconds, FTL in thirty!" Then he turned to her "Quantum, ME, Slipspace or Warp?"

"Quantum, Joker, let's get moving." The helmsman nodded.

Straha was first to react in alarm "Wait, we require safety harnesses, we are not used to the acceleration this must mean for you…"

He waited until the countdown was nearing zero "Jumping… now."

The members of the Race felt nothing at the jump, but the holographic cockpit surroundings, allowing Joker to see everything around the ship, had shifted in setting after a momentary flash of polychromatic quantum tunnel and now showed the massive moon of Earth nearby and the planet itself up ahead. The Iwo Jima drifted past at high speed toward Earth itself, and Hannah chuckled at the shocked expressions on the faces of the members of the Race. "Well, what do you think?"

Drefsab and Straha began screaming almost as one "This is deception! This cannot be a truth!"

Erewlo, who's stayed silent until this moment, was first to speak after those two "How… how could this be? How would you communicate an alert to an inbound attack?" The male dissolved into babbling to himself.

Ulhass, Ristin and Ussmak were furiously conversing over the implications of such incredible technology while Straha addressed Hannah "Division Commander… I wish to see the world with my own eyes, this could be a deception, and I… we need to see."

Hannah smiled at the alarm and fear in the alien's voice "Huh, well I guess we can head down to one of the Observation Decks… let's get moving."

* * *

"There aren't any viewports." Pshing was the one to state the obvious.

"That's because…" Hannah brought up her chest-projected holo-console and manipulated the relevant controls, she didn't need to since she was Cybran and her implants could still output data (though input wasn't an option) like it did whenever she patched into the Cybran Network. The huge slabs of armour that were usually closed over the Observation Deck whenever there was an alert (triple the structural field damage was typically sustained from a hit to the transparent material of the Observation Deck compared to actual armour, hence why it was usually closed) drew back slowly and allowed the stars to shine through. "The armour was drawn over it."

The members of the Race were offered an excellent view of the planet below, with the terminator clearly visible, offering a view of both the daytime side and the night side. The daytime side was filled with the green of verdant plant life and the blue of the oceans while bright spots of light from the compact, efficient and comfortable cities dotted the night side, separated by what were effectively stretches of darkness, the countryside. This was a moment of truth… THE moment of truth, it proved that the planet, even if it was not the home world of this Coalition, was far too settled to be successfully conquered, if the tech level down there was anything like it was on this ship.

Hannah herself looked upon the home world with a soft, fond smile on her face, remembering the battle over Black Sun and then the struggle over the Quantum Arch. She thought of how the planet had been effectively restored to its former glory from the ashes and dust its continents had been bombed to, the poisoned oceans that were now nearly pristine again. Sure, in thousands of years people would still be able to find pieces of glass melted into their shapes and compositions by Othe Tactical Bomb detonations from the Ahwassa Experimental Bombers that had raked over it in under a day, but the planet was effectively a garden world again after the reclamation and re-terraforming effort.

"This… this is…" Straha was about to say "Truth", but Drefsab interrupted.

"Could it be a hologram? We already know you have advanced holographic technology…" the intelligence officer asked with much trepidation, as if unwilling to believe what his eye turrets were telling him.

Hannah Shepard facepalmed in irritation "Ugh, seems like you simply are unwilling to believe me, huh? I'll just have to show you exactly who's boss then…"

* * *

A/N: How is she going to do that? Well, you'll have to wait until I get near the climax of SupCom ME 2 to find out, since I'm a bit tired of writing total curb-stomps.

THIS STORY WILL NEVER BE ABANDONED! (Unless completion counts)


	3. Tau Ceti II

A/N: I never abandon a fic, no matter how tedious it can get at times, please remember that the Cyrannus Colonies aren't going to be able to muster a strong enough attack force (their opinion) for at least 2 or 3 years. In that time, Coalition tech can, with all factions collaborating, probably jump up a long way.

* * *

Chapter 3: Tau Ceti II

_Asteroid Belt, Sol System, Bannership 127__th__ Emperor Hetto, January 17, 3869_

"You can't do shit about calling off this doomed invasion, Fleetlord, so we're going to find someone who can call off this invasion." Hannah Shepard stated bluntly, fists clenched as she towered over the Race command crew in her armour. "We'll be heading to your homeworld in three hours. If you want to come along, come, if not, Straha will represent your fleet's interests." These guys were most likely not good at politics, even if they were, Atvar could not possibly turn down something like that, considering the disputes Hannah could perceive between the Fleetlord and the Shiplord.

"I forbid you to go to Home!" was Atvar's first reaction, then a hiss of dismay at the realization that he couldn't do shit about it, before "Well, Kirel, take command of the Fleet, I will need to present my report to the Emperor myself."

"Acknowledged, Exalted Fleetlord." The senior Shiplord bowed his head slightly.

"Good, now let's get going." Hannah marched off, leaving Atvar to follow her, obviously with a subdued air.

* * *

_Asteroid Belt, Sol System, CSC Iwo Jima, January 17, 3869_

"These are interesting designs to put on a wall, almost look like gigantic aircraft of some sort." Atvar commented dryly as Hannah led him through the flight bay,

"Those are Gemini Aerospace Superiority Fighters." Hannah pointed to an example of them, red and black matte hull seemingly absorbing all light nearby. "These are Restorer Anti-Aerospace Gunships." The gleaming white and green hulls were in stark contrast to the black fighters parked nearby "These are Shocker Strategic Bombers" Another group of gleaming white, green and curvy aircraft. "These here are assorted Broadsword Heavy Gunships, Whailer Heavy Gunships like the shuttle we used, Revenant Strategic Bombers, a few Corona ASFs" That was for their flak effect, stunningly effective against races with inferior tech, and the Revenants were for stealth strikes and their flak, which was actually useful against primitives i.e. the Colonials. "That's about it, I'm sure we have a few other assorted craft types around but you needn't worry about that, Joker, start the countdown, we're Homeward Bound."

"Understood, ma'am, Quantum Jumping in ten, nine, eight, seven…"

"Wait, how could it be safe to jump or whatever when we are standing in this killercraft launch bay?" Atvar looked around for something to grab onto.

"Two, one… Jump now!" The ship's PA made a loud bleeping noise to indicate that a jump had just occurred. "We are in the Tau Ceti system, orbiting Tau Ceti III." Joker announced, that planet was a gas giant while the inner two planets were terrestrial.

"Alright, Joker, thanks for the parking spot, Atvar, how much more time do you need to finish your report?"

"An eighth of a day, at least." The Fleetlord said quietly.

"Huh… well, for some reason your planet's rotation period is effectively exactly the same as mine, so that's three hours, you have one hour, or one twenty-fourth of a day, before we, as in the Iwo Jima, enters orbit of your homeworld, though they won't detect us unless we broadcast our location, even then, our transmission systems are too good for them to track unless we constantly update them as to our coordinates." It was fun scaring the shit out of the Fleetlord.

"What… I had better get typing quickly then." Atvar seemed shocked for a moment before looking around "Is there a console I can use?"

Hannah nodded "Yep, it's in the room we repurposed for your entourage, feel free to use it."

"Thank you… could you show me the way?" Atvar sounded rather submissive, in Hannah's opinion.

She nodded again "Follow me."

* * *

Straha was wearing pieces of cloth, as the Big Uglies were, it made sense, with the abominable cold in the ship. "Hello, Exalted Fleetlord." He didn't even stand up as the higher-ranking male walked, in, lounging tiredly on a provided couch.

Atvar's tail stump twitched at the lack of any gesture of respect and the fact that the tone of Straha's words clearly contradicted what he was saying "Shiplord, have you forgotten all courtesy?"

Straha made the negative gesture "No, Exalted Fleetlord, I am merely wondering what they shall say about us when we return to Home, prisoners on an alien ship… a FAR superior alien ship."

The Tosevite Division Commander interjected with "You're not prisoners, you're diplomats, representing your kind."

"It is the same, we are glorifies prisoners, that is how diplomacy works, is it not?" Straha finished with an interrogative cough.

"Assuming that cough meant it's a question, which I think it is, diplomacy among my people does not work that way. I'll leave you guys here to prepare your report to your Emperor." Hannah stopped leaning against the doorway, a doorway two Marines were standing guard outside of, and left, the door closing behind her.

"I wonder what the Emperor shall think of us." Straha continued, glancing down at the floor automatically in respect for his ruler. "He will slap our snouts and turn his back upon us, most likely."

Atvar hissed in protest "The Emperor is wise, he will understand that circumstances are far different from what we had expected."

"Yeah, but will he truly understand how far they are different?"

Atvar shifted uncomfortably "The Emperor is wise, as I said, he will be able to grasp this concept far faster than we can."

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Iwo Jima, High Orbit over Tau Ceti III, January 17, 3869_

"I bet he will." Hannah muttered with a smirk as they listened in on the two males talking "Joker, prep the Gate, we're sending down the ACU. If they don't take our kind offer of pushing their colonization fleet to some useless desert planet nearby, I'll just hop onto the Restorer we'll park in the palace gardens." They'd picked that up with recon probes already "And we'll be out of there. Bring in a CZAR if we have to. A half-kilometre wide flying saucer should convince them to stop waving their most likely impossibly tiny dicks around. If they shoot at us and actually register damage, shoot back, if not, wait until I get back to the ACU to make command decisions, got it Joker?"

"Yes, Division Commander!" Joker stiffened in his seat as he activated the gating controls and such.

"No Paragons or Yolona Oss this time." Hannah said as she took control of the ACU, now on the ground on Home, its stealth field covering up the entire area and making it look perfectly normal even though it wasn't. Ah, the wonders of Active Camouflage fields… oh, and Passive Stealth too.

"Damn, not even after you leave to do diplomacy?"

Hannah smirked and shook her head as she took the controls of the Armoured Command Unit "Nope."

"Damn… how about regular strategic missiles?"

Hannah let out a low growl of irritation as she set up her economy, starting with a T2 Mass Extractor and five T1 Power Plants before going to T2 Power Generator "One silo, only one."

"That's nice, I guess, I don't they have any real SMDs, do they?" Joker looked up at her inquisitively.

Hannah waved it off "Nah, nothing with enough yield to crack through the fields and armour of one of our nukes anyways." There was a reason that nukes cost 12000 mass each, which was because they were extremely armoured, 24000 tons of armour, machinery, etc, in fact. Yolona Oss missiles, being 24000 mass or 48000 tons, were even more armoured, needing two SMD missiles to kill one. It was also why anyone wanting to maintain Strategic Missile Launchers, or even a single Yolona Oss, usually owned a Paragon or a large number of Mass Storages and fully surrounded Extractors.

* * *

A/N: Always thought the Yolona Oss missiles were unfair and insane. Only 600 mass, are you freaking serious? Hence I'm cranking it up to twice that of a normal missile. It's a -400 drain on your mass income, meaning people aren't so wanton about it anymore.

* * *

_Bridge, CSC Iwo Jima, Approaching Tau Ceti II, January 17, 3869_

She had long since finished building up her base and a medium-sized group of units when she PIP-ed that window on her HUD and called the males of the Race up "Alright, we're going to enter orbit, any suggestions?" Hannah glanced at the Fleetlord.

"Perhaps announce our presence?" Atvar ventured as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe. Hannah nodded approvingly _Good, this guy does have some sense, but I still think surprising them will be more fun… ah well._

"Joker, broadcast on all radio frequencies, take down Active Camo, Active stealth, and Passive Stealth, engage translation programs, starting… now." Hannah brought her fist down with a thump. If the Race Radar was too crappy to detect them with just the hull materials then too bad, they were about to get a rude shock "This is Division Commander Hannah Shepard of the Coalition of Species, we would like to open first contact with the Emperor of your kind."

The airwaves were silent for almost a minute before everyone started talking at once "Where did that come from?" "Did anyone pick up a new contact?" "Was someone trying to play a joke?" "Hey I see a giant ship outside this view port!" That one called out some coordinates before the airwaves went silent again.

"Hello, this is Home Traffic Control, we have never heard of this Coalition of Species, who are you really to demand an audience with the Emperor? Where are you from?" The male on the other side asked with such arrogance that Atvar did the Race equivalent of a facepalm, except he was more careful with his claws.

"The Coalition of Species has many species and factions, however the main species is called Humanity and we are from the Sol system, the system you call Tosev." Hannah stated coldly "Your conquest fleet is currently in the Asteroid Belt waiting for judgement."

"Tosev? Tosevites are at an agricultural stage of development, they have not the technology to get into their own atmosphere, who are you really?" Straha had gone further than Atvar at this point, knocking his head gently but repeatedly against a table top while the other members of the Race were trembling in irritation.

"Your Fleetlord Atvar is on my ship, he will prove otherwise, Fleetlord, tell them." Hannah glared at Atvar, who stepped up to the console and began to speak.

"I am Fleetlord Atvar of the Conquest Fleet." He gave a string of authentication codes. "The Coalition has proven it is much stronger than us, but they are not inclined to simply crush us at the moment. We require an audience with the Emperor to ensure the Race is not annihilated."

"The codes are true, however you cannot be the Fleetlord, the Conquest Fleet is in the Tosev system, it would be impossible for you to be back so soon. This must be a falsehood."

"The Tosevites have faster-than-light transit capabilities." Atvar hissed "I would not have believed it but it is truth."

"That cannot be, faster-than-light travel is impossible, our scientists have proved it to be impossible."

Hannah snorted derisively "Our scientists once thought it impossible too, but here we are, Joker, give me fire control." The Marines stepped in front of the males of the Race as she selected one particular Heavy Oblivion Cannon and fired it at a deserted region of the planet below them twice in quick succession. "That should tell you something, get out of our way or we will forget about talking with your Emperor and blow you all to hell." She said icily.

It was a number of moments before the reports of the giant melted craters could get back to the palace, apparently, but the next individual to speak was of much higher rank "I am Minister Ssumaz Risen," he pronounced it RAI-ZON "Kinsmale to the Emperor, we would like to ask if Fleetlord Atvar could submit his report on the situation before further negotiations."

"Alright, Atvar, your report's been sent. I hope they finish reading it soon or there won't be a Home for us to go talk on." Hannah stated casually, as if she was Ooh-ing and Ah-ing over cute fluffy kittens, before closing the channel. All the other ships in orbit were moving away, good, they knew her Battle Cruiser to be an apex predator… well, still not Apex enough to take on a Reaper, but that was beside the point.

* * *

_Imperial Court, Home, January 17, 3869_

Ssumaz Risen, an uncle to the current Emperor, and an old but still valued and respected male, shut the comm. link down, trembling slightly at the casual threat. The reports from the satellites that came in on the two molten glass craters, still glowing brightly on thermal sensors were chilling. "The reports from Fleetlord Atvar and Shiplord Straha are in, my Emperor."

Ryssan, current Emperor, spoke next, glaring down at the report he was reading "Forget the formalities. This is a state of emergency, distribute the reports so the whole Cabinet can read them, Risen. We need to decide what to do."

They had no clue whatsoever that an Engineering Drone from a "The Kennel"-class Engineering station was hovering outside soundlessly listening in on everything they were saying with its ultra-sensitive audio receptors. They also had no idea there was a number of towering units, Percivals, Bricks, Harbingers and Othuums, with a couple loyalists through in for missile defence, sitting in the Palace Square, having been dropped there by Continental T3 Heavy Air Transport, all just standing there under Active Camouflage.

* * *

Hannah Shepard, in full armour and with her weapons, stomped her way into the palace arrogantly, well, it was more of a confident stride, but the assembled Race Cabinet most likely would not see it as such. Three members of the race, the court painters, or whatever Straha said they were called, stopped her and the two senior members of the Conquest Fleet. They re-applied the body paint of the two males before they approached her "How should we paint you?"

"You will not." Hannah growled authoritatively, thoroughly irritated by this species' obstinate actions and inability to adapt quickly.

"But you must be made presentable before the Emperor. Are you male or female?"

"My armour is neat enough to be presentable before anyone, unless you want to test it?" She clenched her fists, intimidation would work well here, though if needed she wouldn't hesitate to march her units on this building and annihilate it to make a point. "Get out of my way, we're running on a time limit for your species' survival."

"You are a barbarian, we need to paint you properly so that you may begin to become civilized. Decorum must be…"

She didn't let the lizard person finish, she jumped over their heads, literally, without even using her QP Pack. "Atvar, Straha, let's move. You three, stay where you are." She motioned the two somewhat stunned males into line behind her, by waving her Laser Battle Rifle over her shoulder vaguely. They wouldn't know what it was, but it was clearly a lethal implement of death, which she returned to its slot in her armour. "We'll hang out here until they call us, if you guys so much as approach me with a paintbrush expect to find yourself holding a burnt stub, or maybe not holding anything at all if my aim misses even a little bit." She flared her red helmet optics menacingly at the three old females.

* * *

Emperor Ryssan hissed a sigh as the cabinet finished assembling "Risen, call it." He hissed to his private microphone to his uncle.

"Yes, my Emperor…" Risen turned his microphone off "ATTENTION TO ALL IN THE HALL OF OFFICE! The Coalition of Species Tosevite aggressors who fired on Home unprovoked have come to request a meeting with the Emperor Ryssan, 27th to bear that name. Is permission given?"

"Permission given to Fleetlord Atvar and Shiplord Straha, ask the Division Commander to remain outside until called." The crowd nearly gasped, Emperors demanded, ordered, commanded, they did not ASK.

"Allow Shiplord Straha and Fleetlord Atvar to enter!" Risen called.

"Greetings, Shiplord, Fleetlord, would you give us an explanation as to why you accompany powerful neighbours, that you were supposed to conquer, to Home?" Ryssan inquired "Ignore formalities for now, we do not have the time."

"Emperor, as we decelerated our ships were intercepted by a Coalition fleet and forced to take up positions near the Asteroid Belt of the Tosev system. They demonstrated to us that their ships were faster, their weapons more powerful, and that they have the ability to cross vast distances in the flick of a nictitating membrane across an eye."

Ryssan frowned gravely "Fleetlord, when you contacted the Coalition, were you a prisoner?" That was an important question as far as the cabinet was concerned, as he was still a fairly young Emperor, his father having been the one to send the Conquest Fleet off…

"Yes and no. Their concept of diplomacy is somewhat different from our own, Their ships blocked ours and they demonstrated powerful weapons on nearby asteroids to make a point, they could have destroyed us easily, yet they choose not to. According to the Division Commander, it is because of their history with wars of annihilation. They have no desire to squash us like bugs, though they can." Atvar explained.

The Emperor hummed in agreement "Shiplord Straha, do you concur?"

"Yes, Emperor, the Tosevites are capable of incredible feats of science that we have no clue even existed. They wish only to be peaceful neighbours, despite being able to crush us effortlessly at any time of their choosing."

* * *

No one below even noticed the less than a hundredth of a percent of light dimming that occurred when several half-kilometre-wide circular shadows passed overhead, active camouflage engaged. Any Coalition visual sensor would have picked it up at once, but not the Race's technology. The disks flew just below the speed of sound as they moved above the palace, stopping there as if resting, revolving slowly.

* * *

"That makes any negotiation difficult at best." Ryssan said slowly. "Very well, call in the Division Commander."

There was a noticeable gasp when Hannah Shepard marched into the large court meeting room and looked about. It wasn't bad, but she doubted she could fit even a Mech Marine into the space, it wasn't that tall… "No one has ever brought weapons and armour into the presence of the Emperor before…" One of the females of the court hissed to Risen, who held up a hand to silence her, since his nephew, on the throne, was holding up a hand to silence the mutterings that had begun in the great hall.

"Greetings, members of the Race." The alien said, standing there casually, almost haughtily, as she spoke, in perfect Race Standard. "I am Division Commander Hannah Shepard of the Coalition of Species, I'm here to discuss the minor issue of your Conquest Fleet entering my species' home system. We don't take kindly to intruders, and we'd like you to leave. There are plenty of deserted planets in this general region of space that you're welcome to settle, if you want. The Coalition does not need them, each of our major factions has at least a thousand habitable worlds within their space, you're welcome to go settle one of them." Well, the Seraphim Republic only had that many if you counted every terraform-able planet, inhabited planet numbers were much lower.

The whole place erupted in conversation and debate.

* * *

It wasn't until the second day of talks that things settled down enough for someone to think of a critical question to ask the Division Commander, who'd already gone back to her Whailer once for some rest. "What happens if we do not agree?"

"If you do not agree, I have been authorized to begin the war of your annihilation at Home. You Conquest Fleet will be destroyed in the blink of an eye by the rest of my Hunter Squadron, and then they will jump to crush your Colonization Fleet."

"How will you start a war here? You only have one ship!" Someone said, the Emperor's facepalm prevented anything further from coming out of that particular person's mouth.

"You will find that our technology is far better than you would think." Hannah smirked "Joker, deactivate the active and passive camo on the CZARs." Screaming began outside as the sun was abruptly blotted out by a titanic shadow. "Transfer primary control to me, you keep the auxiliary." She routed some of the energy supply of the base she'd established through her armour's specially fitted fortress shield as she began working, moving a CZAR to carve a line in the now-deserted palace gardens before turning off all camouflage on the other units, gigantic aircraft spiralling through the skies over the capital city, a line of huge walkers crossing the still-molten rive of lava in the gardens without apparent harm to themselves. Hannah turned and QP Packed her way out to her Whailer before it vanished into thin air with active camo. A Restorer projected her hologram and said "You cannot hope to win, there are only two choices, annihilation or peace. What do you choose?"

The palace floor was shaking as if there was an earthquake from the footfalls of the approaching walkers. Ryssan managed to call "Peace."

The shaking stopped, and the wings of aircraft patrolling over the capital city returned to their berths in the CZARs. "Excellent, now, here's a list of available planets near you, choose one quickly and we'll tow your Colonization Fleet over there for no extra expense, consider it a gesture of goodwill for your rather, uh, destroyed palace garden."

* * *

"How big are those?" Ussmak asked the nearest Marine, pointing at the walkers the TV was displaying, the newsreels alarmed over the appearance of the war machines.

"The Percivals an Bricks" The Marine pointed out two types, before continuing "Are forty meters tall, about twenty-five times your height, and the Harbingers are about thirty-five meters, the Othuums are only fifteen meters, being a Tank-type vehicle, what you'd call a Landcruiser-type."

Ristin and Ulhass were gaping in shock "But… but… how heavy are they?"

"Harbingers and Othuums are over two thousand tons, Bricks and Percivals three thousand, a ton is the mass of a cubic meter of water." The males of the Race present were gaping, not with laughter, but with shock.

* * *

Down on the planet below, in the front doors of the palace, most of the Cabinet was doing the same, heads craned up to look at the immense walkers, standing in the shadow of the huge hovering disk above the palace entrance.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it's so short, but enough people have been yelling for an update that I needed to put a short one up to pass the time. And yes, Hannah Shepard likes getting the job done so she can go home.

The next chapter will more than likely be the last, with Atvar and Straha discussing the new colony with Reffet, maybe talk about Ttomalss and Feless clashing, and maybe put in Nesseref, always liked her character.


	4. New Colonies… and Covenants

A/N: I never abandon a fic. Sorry I left this sitting on my hard drive for so long… forgot it when I went on a trip, ergo Ch 19 and 20 of Reclaimers went up before this.

* * *

Chapter 4: New Colonies… and Covenants

_Orbit over Unknown World, January 18, 3869_

"Impossible!" Reffet said in shock as he looked over the charts again "We cannot possibly have gotten here so fast…"

"The star charts do not lie, Fleetlord." Feless hissed. She had been awoken as part of the groups of researchers trying to figure out what had happened when the computers had found something amiss and began waking up the higher ranking individuals of the Colonization Fleet.

"We're picking up a transmission, Fleetlord." A communications officer called.

"This planet is the one we have agreed with your Emperor to allow you to colonize. You will begin colony construction operations right away. We have determined it is suitable for you." A somewhat metallic voice spoke "I am using a translation device to speak your language, now, have fun with your new planet. You should still be able to see the star of your homeworld from here… good luck. Just call if you need any help."

"Wait, who are you and how can you speak with the authority of the Emperor?" Reffet demanded.

"I am Division Commander Hannah Shepard of the Coalition of Species, I have been to your Home world and negotiated" yeah, more liked forced "That you be permitted to settle this abandoned planet instead of impaling yourself on Earth's orbital defences. Now, if you want to talk to someone actually from Home, I can understand that, we have a channel set up and ready, and don't worry, we have faster-than-light communications capability, though we don't have to use that."

"I would not mind speaking with a male or female of the Race… of sufficient rank of course." Reffet added the last part when he realized they could just stick a captive under his nose if what they said was true.

"Fleetlord Reffet." Everyone on the bridge froze before glancing down at the floor in respect at the voice and visage of the Emperor "this is Emperor Ryssan speaking from the CSC Iwo Jima" He made a bit of a hash of the name, but that was beside the point "we have discovered many new truths since you and I last spoke, the Tosevites are far, far, FAR more advanced than we had dreamt of, and their technology is astounding at the very least. They have brought us and you here by using various means of Faster-Than-Light drives, and are being quite generous in offering one of their uninhabited planets to settle. I recommend you begin setting up the colonies right away, though there are a few areas the Coalition wants to hold to support an orbital defence network." Those were highlighted in the map that was sent over the link-up. "Take heed of these walled complexes. Further negotiations will occur on the surface in one of said complexes. Be ready to receive a shuttle and be transported down to the surface. You may bring one of your own pilots if you wish, he or she will be able to provide you with a good perspective on the technology you shall see."

"I obey, Exalted Emperor." Reffet answered simply.

Ryssan nodded and smirked bitterly on the video screen "Good, prepare yourself for revelations as never before."

* * *

_New Race Colony World, January 18, 3869_

"This is…" Reffet's jaw seemed not to be working properly as the structures popped into visibility all of a sudden, revealing a complex of large buildings with several obviously defensive turrets around it… gigantic defensive turrets.

"Rather huge?" Ryssan asked tiredly.

"Yes, Exalted Emperor."

Ryssan face-palmed as they sped closer to the complex in the vehicle that had been chosen to carry them, a gigantic grey slab with similarly gigantic weapons turrets, the Coalition called it a Fatboy. "How many times do I have to say it? I don't like being overly formal when there's a state of emergency!" He suddenly thought of something "Fleetlord, I hereby order you to be informal when speaking with me until 'negotiations' are completed."

Over the next few days, terms that had been, well, dictated, to the Race, were reviewed and then a few offers were extended. One major one was "You know, with all the other various powerful, dangerous, and far more hostile factions out there, I think you guys will need an orbital defence grid over your home world if not all your worlds. We can provide you with a basic orbital defence plan until you can establish your own grid. Of course, that's for your Home, we'll have orbital defences over this planet regardless."

"What would this orbital defence plan consist of?" Ryssan asked, feeling somewhat intrepid about it. If what he had seen of the Coalition's technology was accurate, there was a high chance of it being INCREDIBLY over-done.

"Since you're so close to Earth, one Strategic Missile Defence Station, Ten Heavy Defence Stations, Twenty Medium Defence Stations, Thirty Light Defence Stations, and ninety satellites should do it." Hannah stated.

"Isn't that a little… large?" Ryssan questioned, adding an interrogative cough.

Hannah shook her head in the human equivalent of the Race's negative gesture "No, we never know what could be out there, better safe than sorry, besides, we'll tow the stations away after you build up your own orbital defence grid."

Ryssan's left eye turret twitched slightly "How about we get to work on our own orbital defence grid without a sword over our heads?"

Hannah shrugged uncaringly "That works too, so long as you adequately defend your system, it's not really any of our business what you do. But if there's a war and your system falls to the Coalition's enemies because you failed to implement your own orbital defences, then we will not be responsible for collateral damage inflicted during the retaking of your system. However, if you accept our generous offer of protection until you can get your own act together, then should your system fall and need to be retaken we will pay for all damaged incurred during the occupation and reclamation."

Ryssan thought about it "Those terms sound fine to us, we shall make our own road. We should be able to get an orbital defence grid running fairly quickly on our own."

Hannah shrugged again, thoroughly bored with the whole business "Alright, but remember, it's YOUR Home world we are talking about."

"We understand… is there a treaty about this agreement that we must sign?"

"Yes, it is here, I recommend you take the night to examine it, then ask us more about it in the morning. But for right now, it is dinner time…" Hannah smirked almost evilly "And this time, we shall try some Earth dishes as opposed to dishes from your Home."

* * *

"This food is… typical of Tosevite foods from what I have seen… short on salt." Reffet said, poking his dinner with a finger claw.

"It's the closest thing in Earth foods to your food worms." Hannah said as she crunched up another fried cricket. "And don't complain about the salt, we ate your foods without complaining too much, didn't we?"

"As it should have been—" Reffet grumbled.

Atvar cut him off with a hiss "Reffet! Remember your place at the table. We are guests and should treat the hosts with the respect they deserve, especially these hosts."

Hannah smirked as she reached over to a lobster tail, grabbing it before tearing the carapace off piece by piece to expose the yummy white meat inside to dipping in the dish of sauce she had next to her plate. The Race was not very good at presenting a united front if you caught them off-guard, much like most humans. That was good. They would probably go over the generous terms of the treaty in its simple entirety and then agree tomorrow.

They did agree the next day to most of the terms. The Race were allowed to settle on nearly the entire planet minus a few inhospitable areas, mostly near the poles, that the Coalition laid claim to for building bases from which they could interact with the Race. Most of the talking by the Race group, as Hannah had decided, with the Coalition personnel stationed on-planet would be through Ttomalss, Straha or Atvar. Reffet, having insisted the Colonization Fleet have a say in any future talks, had had selected from his group Nesseref and Feless for his side of any talks. They would get a single-link (not network) comm. relay uplink to Home, and another to Coalition space, serving as the relay between the Coalition and the race Empire, and be basically left to do what they wanted.

* * *

Atvar walked up to the park bench that a certain male was sitting on at the moment, watching two Senior Researchers in the distance debate on something probably very similar to what he was here to discuss "Reffet."

The other male glared at the Fleetlord of the Conquest Fleet "Atvar."

"The Emperor" both glanced down out of habit in respect "says I should talk to you about your thoughts on this new colony deal we've been given."

"You are a failure, you failed to conquer Tosev Three and look where we are now, under the thumb of Tosevites!" Reffet hissed, keeping an eye turret of the bickering Researchers.

Atvar's left eye turret was also watching Ttomalss and Feless argue some distance away in the great outdoors before he snapped it back to the Fleetlord of the Colonization Fleet, still sitting on his park bench with a frown on his face that Atvar wanted to claw off "And they are far more civilized than the manner in which you are behaving. They were generous in giving us a future at all! You have seen the might of their military, they could wipe us out in less than a day should they wish to, yet they do not."

"It's a future given to us… not our own…"

"To have our own future we must learn, Reffet, we must change, days ago I would have thought myself insane to speak thus but I see now that if we cannot change we will be left behind to be buried in the sands of time."

Reffet sighed "You are right… but this is difficult to swallow, how many of the males and females of the colonization fleet will comprehend it, I wonder?"

Atvar sighed too "We do not know, but we will learn with time. It is all we can do."

* * *

_New Race Colony World, January 22, 3869_

"You guys don't want any Quantum Gates over your planets? They could help regulate traffic to ground-side gates and allow for more gates per planet…" Hannah asked, surprised they hadn't agreed to that particular passage.

"No, we don't want ANY gates at all. We need to sit back and think about it, perhaps pry the rest of the Race around to understanding our place in the big bad galaxy better…" Ryssan looked off into the distance for a moment "We want to watch the colony here, see it grow, see if we should isolate ourselves for a while…"

She nodded "I understand, come, Emperor Ryssan, it's time that we leave for Home." And so they did head off for home… and drop off the Race Emperor and those members of the race that had come with them to this world. That would be the end of the Race issue… Hannah thought.

How very wrong she would be.

* * *

_Tau Ceti System, January 15, 3872, Same Time As Beginning of Battle of Reach_

Out of respect for an old civilization that had held together for so long, the Coalition had not left any major defence complexes, even active-stealthed ones (normal building materials were invisible to Race radar unless at point-blank, with standard passive stealth and passive camo, well, ramming would be required for detection), in-system. All that were there were a few listening drones. That was a big mistake.

A Covenant recon fleet of fifty warships of assorted classes exited slipspace in the outer system and paused in shock at the discovery of such a primitive system in the heartland of their enemy. They quickly decided that this system would make an excellent staging point for future operations and advanced, setting off sensors in the stealthed listening outposts. Unfortunately, the Coalition was throwing all its fleets into action along the main battle line, including recalling Home Fleet crews to their ships to head for Reach. The Coalition Fleets and the Home Fleets were separate branches, and the former was so heavily engaged against this fresh tide of Covenant warships all along the line that they couldn't send anything more to Reach. Ergo the Home Fleets were quickly mobilizing for battle and Gantries all across Coalition territory were building ships at maximum speeds.

Since the Coalition was so occupied with beating back, or at least beating up, the Covenant on every front, they could not spare a single Recon Group to eviscerate the Covenant recon fleet, and so it was that the Race was caught completely off-guard. The fact that they usually did things slowly and had not even begun construction on the orbital defence system that Ryssan had decreed be put into action didn't help. Said network of nuclear missile platforms was still in the planning stages when Plasma Torpedo fire impacted on the largest Race orbital station, completely wrecking it, protective plating included, in a single shot. None of the orbital stations had been designed with space warfare in mind, so their plating was only enough to defend against space junk and small meteoroids. The few missile platforms that had been put up were for targeting asteroids that could threaten Home, not that there were many as Tau Ceti was a relatively clean system, unlike Tosev (aka Sol). The few missiles that had been in the platforms were released one after another, only to be swatted away easily by Covenant Pulse Lasers, for obvious reasons, as unlike Coalition missiles, they were not armoured against anti-aircraft fire.

If Coalition TMDs had been turned to use as point defence or AA guns, they would be quite powerful, however they had been designed for the far more important task of boring through the heavily armoured and fielded missiles at single impact points or redirecting them (for Will-O-The-Wisp systems). Against units, they would not deliver lethal damage as the beams or rounds were far too narrow, but against missiles, it would take one out in a single shot… though Loas, being four-sectioned (A/N: Akin to a Triforce symbol) could take up to four hits to nail all the sub-missiles.

Once the (extremely fragile and underpowered) missiles were fired the platforms became immediate targets for pulse laser fire, a few shots were enough to destroy each one, and so the Covenant set about the task of clearing Home orbit. Needless to say, Emperor Ryssan immediately sent a message to the new colony to ask for Coalition aid… the response was "Much regret… unable… treaty specified that we would only be temporarily fully responsible for the defence of Home IF the orbital defence grid offered was installed. Otherwise we will assist your system's defence as able. We are currently engaged across over fifty systems with a wide-front offensive by the Covenant and are unable to route any reinforcements to you."

That had been Elite Commander Dostya, as she was currently busy trying to route fleets to hot spots all along the current border, and since the Covenant fleet there wasn't large she couldn't afford taking any ships away from the larger, more decisive battles. Over the next few days the situation would only worsen as several battles were lost and others ended in victories so costly it would take a few days for adequate reinforcements to be pushed up to replace the twenty-thousand-plus warships lost (though crew casualty counts did not even hit that number thanks to the evac Geminis).

* * *

_Tau Ceti System, January 19, 3872_

Fortunately, it seemed that the Covenant was also running low on steam after having lost over nine thousand starships of various classes in the four days of constant battle that stretched from the fifteenth to the eighteenth of January, 3872. They had pulled back slightly, except for all fleets near this system, Tau Ceti. They had bunched together, rallying at the station _Unyielding Hierophant_ that had just been deployed into the system. The Covenant troops were getting some well deserved rest on the station after ninety-six hours of constant fighting against their tenacious enemy. The one-thousand-plus strong fleet was devoid of Super Carriers, for the simple reason that the 27-kilometre behemoths tended to become targets of saturation strikes of strategic missiles, or be the sole focus of entire battle groups of warships while other groups distracted the smaller ships. Despite their strength, a Super Carrier could not stand up to one hundred fifty-plus Coalition warships at a time.

Most of the warships present were relatively undamaged, with the damaged ones mostly having been picked off during running battles in Slipspace. That was about to change…

* * *

A/N: I know, very short, but this end coincides with the start of Chapter 19 of SupCom: Reclaimers. And yes, that's the Unyielding Hierophant chapter.


End file.
